Bohatyriova: Ukraine close to medical insurance model

Deputy Premier and Health Minister of Ukraine Raisa Bohatyriova has stated that today the main task for the Health Ministry is to work out new standards for rendering medical aid. "Then we'll approach the insurance model [of medicine] step by step," the press service quotes the minister as saying at a press conference in Chernivtsi.

Bohatyriova said that medical insurance in Ukraine would be introduced sooner or later.

"There's a lot of talk about the model of medicine. We'll surely arrive at medical insurance. This is because 90% of the population considers health care to be of great importance. Forty-six percent is ready to introduce full medical insurance. These people are ready to make deposits to fully provide for themselves," she said.

An advisor to the health minister, Mykola Prodanchuk, asked when medical insurance would be introduced in Ukraine, said that today it is difficult to say there have been any results of reform, since the discussion about relations in the medical sphere has just only started.

"Reform isn't just a slogan, it's a change of relations. Today the system of doctor-patient relations is the same as it has been for last 70 years. But the situation, society, and the economy have changed. Today we're just starting to discuss what to do, and what we want to get as a result," he said.

Bohatyriova also opened a two-day national research and practical conference of the Association of the Ukrainian Head Doctors in Chernivtsi. The topics of the conference are management in the health care system and the introduction of the medical reform.